OFFICIAL Android Feature Wishlist Thread

MOD HIJACK: This is now the official Wishlist Thread. Please use it accordingly.

Thanks for the HIJACK.

Instead of discussing crazy apps that would be cool, I think there is still a lot of basic feature improvement that can be done to Android (which might include integrating some current apps in the OS).
Thought it would be good to have this in one convenient thread for the google developers to be able to take note.
Here's a list to get the ball rolling (not in any particular order of importance)

1. Better Caller ID (This might be T-Mobile's fault, but all the numbers that I used to get ID'd, show up as "unknown").
2. Bluetooth Voice recognition? I couldn't get it to work with my motorola set.
3. Virtual Keyboard - I like the Vista Tablet model, but in this case, you would use your thumb to slide the keyboard out when you need it, kind of like you slide out the Main Menu. Although if that got in the way, maybe you could access it through the menu button.
4. I want the option to auto-mount the sd card when connected via USB put back in menu as a check box.
5. Also, the option to choose the time-interval between data auto-syncs.
6. Better battery management functions, profiles, and quicker access to screen brightness, and the other functions that Toggle provides.
7. Make the alarm clock more like Klaxon (minus all the crashing). Big snooze button, back button = dismiss, ability to select any audio in system or sd card, ability to change snooze length (in 1 minutes intervals).
8. Option to remove unnecessary apps, like Amazon MP3.
9. Ability to setup multiple gmail accounts (with one set to master account)
10. Improve email app, allow for multiple message delete, empty trash, search mail
11. Add in-browser Flash support
12. Add OpenOffice-like app to not only read, but create new docs and save to sd card.
13. Add PDF support.
14. Add a file manager. I like Bender, but I think with the support of Google devs, we can make an even better one that integrates a little more seemlessly.
15. Google Earth!!!!!!! I was shocked to see my brother pull up Earth on his ITOUCH!!!! and ashamed that my Google, yeah that's right GOOGLE, phone could not do the same
16. Speaking of iPhones, the two-fingered zoom in/out is just awesome. Not sure if that is software or hardware, but it's just a huge difference is usability. And you won't hear me praise many things about the iPhone.
17. VPN functionality.
18. Fix Auto-connect WiFi. I almost always have to go in and manually connect, says connection problem, but then connects manually just fine.

[edit: thought of some more...]
19. I have a lot of Google Map connectivity issues, while being able to use other network apps fine, could be google server issue. Don't think it is T-Mobile (I'm in LA)
20. Sync contacts with popular desktop apps, such as Evolution, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc...
21. I am not big on IM, but I've heard a lot of frustration in this area, maybe someone else can give input here.
22. I'm going to steal from another thread, even though this is hardware related. I think we need a VGA video camera in the front for video-conferencing. Can you please release this OTA?
23. Tethering phone to laptop.
24. What do you call it when the screen senses the orientation of the phone, well I want that.
25. How could I forget? ability to copy and paste text from non-text edit modes. Maybe special text selection mode?
[/edit]

OK, whew, that's all I got.

But to finish, I never expected the G1 to be perfect, it's 1st gen, so as Beta testers, hopefully Google/HTC/Tmobile are listening to us to improve not only our phones but the next gen as well.

Hey, free consumer feedback right here. We are your customers. Make us happy.

Best Answer

I just figured out the bug with the contact suggesting in SMS that I was complaining about...

If you add your contacts through Google Contacts on your computer, their mobile numbers will be placed in the "mobile" category. If you add them through your phone, they show up as "Mobile". Apparently, the contact suggestion only takes email addresses and "Mobile" with the capital M. I spent quite a bit of time this morning trying to figure out what the problem was, and even more time resetting all of my contacts to "Mobile". This bug seriously needs to be fixed because it's so annoying lol.

16. Multi-Touch...That particular gesture is never going to happen on anything but the iPhone. Apple has patented it, or is at least attempting to. Trying to port it on to any other device would be "a bag of hurt" to use Steve Jobs' own words.

I want a quick keyboard function that works like my desktop TAB key to quickly move from field to field.

Agreed on Screen orientation (though some things do reorient, but it's not consistent)

FLASH SUPPORT!! NOW!!

I'd love to be able to paste text I've copied from elsewhere into the home screen "google search" widget.

Skins for native interface functions - like the dialer.

Really, really NEEDS a keyboard-or-keyboard/trackball option to highlight what you want to copy (I can see it now....up arrow+alt, trackball over what you want to copy...trackball press for context menu) This needs to be root functionality, available across all platforms and apps.

Did I mention...FLASH SUPPORT!!! SERIOUSLY!!! (flash support is going to become the Android users version of iPhone owner's "Copy and Paste" lament)

Please, please for the love of all that is open-source and holy...can we get just a little bit of a moderator presence on the Market comments? If I have to read one more "first!!!!111!!" or "Dis Sucks, crAPP." post, I think I'm going to have to start telling people I bought an Instinct.

Lastly, Hey Sergy? How about the ability to drop pins on GoogleMaps? That would be sweet as a biscut.

Here is what I posted on another thread, most if not all is covered somewhere along the line already

First off the Gmail Application itself.

I have my Gmail account pickup mail from a secondary Gmail account and also an ISP provided account. Now on the PC (Via the web portal as I don't bother with email clients on the PC) you can set up gmail to retrieve mail from other accounts but also send via those addresses also.

On the G1 you can't which is a minor shame, It would be cool if you could at least reply to an email sent to one of the other accounts from that address but you can't it defaults to your Gmail address. It's not a deal breaker for me and it doesn't cause me any issues as I have the G1 set up with my main email address anyway but it would be a nice to have for the future.

Google Reader.

The web portal works well on the phone but damn I wish they could build some kind of simple application for the handset itself. It just feels like there is something missing from the mobile web version and more functionality could be added I feel on a handset version.

Google Docs

Ok to be able to edit etc for the future would be good but my main little issue is that I can preview when I receive documents via email but can't download. Ok so you can't edit yet but I would have liked there to be a proper docs viewer on the handset that would also allow me to save the attachment and then at least upload to google docs (Which I use often) I except that I can do this when I get back to the PC but would be nice to have the functionality on the G1.

Picasa

Well I don't think I will be taking many photo's with the handset as it currently is as well lets be honest the camera isn't up to much but yeah why not picasa functionality would be good but there are applications in the store that can do this anyway so no biggie to be honest.

As I said none of these are deal breakers for me and it hasn't stopped me enjoying the handset or getting the most out of it, it's more musings and hopes for the future really.

Unless I have missed something though it would be nice if Google set up a wishlist site as Nokia did a couple of years ago for s60 where people could post up suggestions and comments as to what they would like to see, but I am sure they take very close notice of forums like this anyway so hopefully they are reading and taking little notes

Click to expand...

But I would also like to add something around Bookmark syncing. Opera and Opera mobile/mini can sync and utilise each others bookmarks via the opera website, I would like to see something similar between Android and The Chrome Browser or even Firefox if at all possible.

YouTube. I would like to have the YouTube app link with my real YouTube account, so my tagged favorites will be synced for quick access. Maybe I'm just not finding the place to set it up. Either way, I think this will become more important when video recording finally lands.

AD2P support. I have media and phone in one device, with Bluetooth capabilities but I can't use my HT820 headphones to dual pair? I don't get it.

Video conf camera. I hope that a future incarnation of an Android phone would have the ability to either swivel the camera, or give it multiple aperatures. Also, for retinal scanning phone security, having a lens on the front would keep me from looking like an idiot when I wanted to unlock the phone.

Oh yeh, copy from text messages. I can copy from almost any other application or place. Why can't I copy from my text messages?

2) Streaming radio
3) OpenVPN client
4) ability to sudo to root ( I had my sdcard fs corrupted and I dismayed to find that there is not a way to fsck the disk without attaching the phone to a real computer)
5) tether

Ok, I don't have a long list, but CRUCIAL one.
and that is the main reason why I did not buy G1 yet, trust me the second it's solved (or maybe even before) I will be buying one set for me, and maybe second as an xmas present.
Here it is:
-Enterprise Productivity Suite: hence, Offline office support (ex. MSF Office, or OpenOffice type of a program) together with PDF offline support. I don't like having to work in a browser with my docs. (plus I one of those who likes his privacy)

I want to be able to replace my laptop with the phone during a short trip, or train ride to school, mostly reviewing with some editing trips.
Please understand, I need it for work and for school. I waited longest time for G1, not upgrading from my old BB, but that was one huge dissapointment.
I'll wait few more weeks, but I might be forced to just upgrade my BB.
-Lucas

1. Onscreen keyboard (T9 style) with vibration feedback.
- actual individual keys is pointless with a full keyboard underneath. a t9 layout allows the user to text/email one handed.
2. Vibration feedback on dialer
3. AIM that just plain works.
4. Ability to run apps off of SD card.

1-flash support
2-streaming siruis-xm radio
3-install and run apps from sd-card
4-video out using a usb-mini to composite cable so i can attach my phone to a tv and watch videos on a bigger screen at work

There are many things that I want that shouldn't be apps developed by people. I want them in the Android OS. Some wishes are also for the sake of developers.

In order of importance:

1.) Install/run apps on SD card
2.) Task Manager
3.) Flash player
4.) Ability to close an app without continuously pressing the back button (like the Market for example). I would recommend/hope for holding the back button to do this.
5.) Ability to set music volume and ringer volume at the SAME TIME/SCREEN
6.) Give developers access to lock screen (for apps like Android Found and Owner)
7.) Store Contacts on SD Card or SIM (especially if bug #1 on my next list isn't fixed)
8.) Let developers code in languages besides Java. C/C++ is faster, and I love speed
9.) Ability to delete Amazon MP3
10.) Better Bluetooth (file transfer, etc.)
11.) Speed dial
12.) More than 3 screens
13.) Ability to move around applications that are in folders on the desktop

Things I want changed/fixed:
1.) Syncing - I don't know about a lot of syncing, but I do sync my contacts with GMail, and I can say that half of the time I have no contacts and I have to resync. This is a major bug and needs to be fixed. What happens when I have no internet and no contacts, stranded somewhere?
2.) IM - PLEASE give us AIM that works. The constant signing off, slow speed of signing in, no away messages, etc. Come on, Google!
3.) Maps - Fix Street View. I want to search for addresses while in Street View. If I'm not in Street View, I want to be able to search for an address and click a nice button that will show me that address in Street View. ALSO! Maps really sucks at finding "My Location". It's not like I live in the boondocks either. I live in the NYC metropolitan area. "My Location," with GPS on, points 3-5 streets away from where I am. Right now it's actually showing that I'm a good half mile away from my house. This is not the case, as I am typing on my desktop computer -_-
4.) SMS - When I type in someone's name, I want suggestions to pop up. Most of the time nobody shows up, sometimes a few show up, but not all matches, and sometimes emails show up instead of phone numbers. FIX THIS! (please )

Options I want added:
1.) Auto-flip orientation for built-in apps and for home screen.
2.) Pin code lock (I like the pattern lock, but some may not)

That's all that I can think of right now. It might seem like a lot, but honestly I think that all of this stuff should be added/fixed. I think some of them are ridiculous (no speed dial?? no SD Card apps??). The bugs that are present right now are just terrible.

I'm getting sort of "sick?" of people wanting developers to come out with apps for things that should be included with the OS. I could understand that, but only if Google came out and said that they would never update certain things. Besides that, developers develop apps, and Google gives us our OS.

Now you are talking It would increase the time to develop an app, but I am and always have been a c/c++ fan

Click to expand...

lol, glad someone agrees. I'm actually not a programmer (unless you consider HTML/CSS and some ActionScript as programming), but that's what I want to be when I grow up (17 years old, a few more years to go!).

Anyway, I thought of another thing I want from Googe...

FIGHT APPLE for Multi-touch rights. I love Macs...I like Steve Jobs. I like lots of Apple's products (although the iPod Touch is the only iPod I will ever lay my hands on). However, a patent on a feature, a piece of code, for basically any kind of touch-responsive device? Ridiculous.

Just like the iPhone/iPod Touch, the G1's accelerometer readings are not 100% correct. By readings, I mean when you open a program like "Bubble" for the G1 and put the phone on a flat surface, the bubble will be a little off center. You can tell this isn't the surface, because if you flip the phone about its x axis, the bubble is in the same spot on the phone, but a facing a different direction. Hard to explain, but people who have Bubble would/should understand.

So maybe, just maybe, Android could have some sort of code to fix what applications would read from the accelerometer since you can't fix the hardware by programming?

If I'm not clear, I'm sorry. It's hard to explain this by typing lmao.

EDIT: I was just thinking! Maybe we can get a feature to re-calibrate the accelerometer?! Is that possible? To me it seems a lot easier/logical than my above suggestion.

EDIT #2: I've got to stop doing this lol. I noticed Bubble has a calibration option, but I don't know if that works for the entire phone....

That actually reminds me of what I heard from Google at LinuxWorld. Of the main focal points of Android, as stated by them, is clarity for both developers and user. Take Symbian for example. It's powerful, you can code in any number of languages in any number of ways. While awesome in theory, their libraries are a mess. If you want certain functionality, it's anyone's guess if it supported/maintained for your setup. This whole Dalvik/Eclipse move is IMHO a smart copy from Apple's playbook. The end result: optimized and full featured API with a powerful IDE.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not siding with Java. I just don't think the (possible) speed increase with coding c/c++ would be worth breaking the unity that Android is enjoying.

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The list is very good!

I'll add some developer oriented things:

Desktop widgets - Come on Google, stop teasing us! It sucks that they are hardcoded into the Launcher application.

Allow devs to put a dynamically generated bitmap in a Notification.

More built in animations for widgets to combat the iPhone.

Allow an application to dynamically add permissions by asking the user.

Database syncing please!

Edit: An updater to keep all of your applications up to date by updating them in the background, similar to Linux distributions.

I just figured out the bug with the contact suggesting in SMS that I was complaining about...

If you add your contacts through Google Contacts on your computer, their mobile numbers will be placed in the "mobile" category. If you add them through your phone, they show up as "Mobile". Apparently, the contact suggestion only takes email addresses and "Mobile" with the capital M. I spent quite a bit of time this morning trying to figure out what the problem was, and even more time resetting all of my contacts to "Mobile". This bug seriously needs to be fixed because it's so annoying lol.